Practical Sustainability - From Grounded Theory to Emerging Strategies

This book commences without an introduction that should have been dedicated to laying out the overall aims of the book, presumably to offer companies (and students of business administration and related subjects) a clear picture and pathway for addressing sustainability issues where they are concerned. After presenting the concept of sustainability in the first chapter, the second aims to lay the strategic foundation for sustainability in business enterprise. The third and fourth chapters, one on the culture shift that firms face when engaging in sustainability, and the other on how to elaborate a business plan pertaining to sustainability projects, complete the basis on which the following five chapters build. They roughly follow a functions approach of the firm, with chapters on sustainable supply chain management, green marketing, sustainability reporting, finance, and accounting. The tenth chapter is devoted to sustainable consumption, and the last chapter, as a sort of outlook, to footprint analysis, a tool that Ms. Khalili sees used in the long run by businesses aiming for sustainability. There was also a feeling of unease having read the cover information that this single authored book (according to the cover and the bibliographical reference) is, in fact, an edited volume of eleven chapters, of which the author wrote four and co-wrote three others. Well, at least, one may expect a higher degree of coordination, leading to a more coherent publication than is often apparent for edited volumes. The first chapter contains already a regrettable theoretical shortcut, the social dimension of sustainability, very often expressed as intragenerational and intergenerational equity. Emphasising as the most important objective of (business) sustainability preserving the Practical Sustainability—From Grounded Theory to Emerging Strategies